When should I explicitly call 'close()' on a socket in Python? -

i'm trying write simple python 2.7 function listen socket connection on localhost port.

question is: if bad happens when code responsible killing socket not left dangling out there? in cases socket error close socket me don't need call 'close()'?

i want avoid having start testing on different port because old 1 left open.

python code sample:

def getconn(port,timeout_secs):      conn = ''      try:          host = ''          s1 = socket.socket(socket.af_inet, socket.sock_stream)          s1.settimeout(timeout_secs)          s1.bind((host, port))          s1.listen(1)          conn, addr = s1.accept()          print('connected by', addr)     except socket.timeout e:          conn = 'socket timeout'     except socket.error e:          conn = 'other socket error'     except:          conn = 'deaddead'          if s1:               s1.close()     return conn 

and used here (say port argument 19111)...

def runtest01_normalpoll(port):      conn = getconn(port, 10.0)      if conn == 'socket timeout' or conn == 'other socket error' or conn == 'deaddead':           print 'could not establish connection...why ask?', conn      else:           conn.close()      print 'done...' 

it seems work missing edge cases leave socket open or cause else bad happen?